Monday, 27 June 2011

... and for a Swede missing her beloved Swedish tradition of the Midsummer festivities last week...

... these views offered a small consolation...

... for the absence of silly songs and jumping like frogs around a phallic pole...

... but only just...!

Again, thank you new readers and old, for stopping by my Swenglish blog world. Thank you SO much for leaving kind words, both fellow bloggers and anonymous readers - your words are precious, even if I am still a very "silent" blog friend on your blogs.

By the way, should you be a potential buyer for one of the cottages in our neighbour village Biddestone (that I showed here the other day), you can check them out on www.rightmove.co.uk, Biddestone. (The one by the pond seems to have been taken off the market, though.) Should you on the other hand feel like a slightly larger property and happen to have £ 3,500,000 floating around in your pocket, another house has just come on the market in the same village, which could relieve you of the burden of that petty cash...

Monday, 20 June 2011

Between the showers...

Having spent the morning clearing out the car after yesterday's car boot sale, taking what I did not manage to sell down to the charity shop, I felt it was time to relax in the garden for a few minutes. Sticking with the recycling theme from yesterday's and this morning's activities, I used some of my bargain finds from a "brocante" in Bath a few weeks ago. The French-inspired vintage market only had seven (!) stalls, most of which were a non-starter for my wallet, but one splendid gentleman clearly wanted to get rid of his things, and offered "oh-my-word-that-is-so-cheap-I-can't-resist" items that not only boasted a tastefully modest price tag, but also had - in my eyes - a certain "je ne sais quoi"...

From the French 'brocante': the two hanging lanterns and the old jelly mould (here acting as fruit basket).

The tray is an old peach crate, and I love how both its age and the tre-digit company phone number have been stamped into the wood, almost "engraved", on the side. The green linen fabric is an old curtain that used to hang in my kitchen in Sweden, and the belt was rejected by the man in the house when they came with his new trousers. A little too new and smart-looking for my taste perhaps, but I thought I would try an idea I had got from Susanne with the wonderful blog "Me and Alice". She used what looks like a softer,well-worn leather belt on a cushion in a neutral colour, and I think that works better than my efforts here. But how boring life would be if I did not experiment a little...?

As I am writing this, it is raining again. Like it did last night... and the day before... and supposedly tomorrow...and for days to come. The old Swedish saying "It is good for the potatoes" seems a little tired and over-used now, and I long for my bad hair days and pale face days to be replaced by sun-caressed, soul-warming summer days. Come on, clouds, surely you have better things to do than hover here?

Oh, dear. A not so bloggable part of our garden, in full view here. The lawn in bad need of a little TLC (= Tender Love and Care), the fence which is no longer so "charming" in its shabby raggedness, the cable running along it to provide electricity for the workshop further down the garden. Ah, well, there you have it. A little dose of Swenglish reality.

Wishing you sun-caressed days, wherever you are!

Thank you for visiting my blog and for all your kind comments - I appreciate every word.

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

I just love the "unshaven" look of the front garden in the first picture, slightly wild, but colourful and relaxed. A bit like the way I would like to think of myself on a rough hair day...

Oh, should any of you feel a sudden urge to move to this picturesque little village, I can reveal that the first cottage in the last photo is for sale, and so is the one by the village pond, in photo number three... Will we perhaps be neighbours soon...?

Wishing you a relaxed, colourful and perhaps wild - in a good way - day!

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Beautiful Biddestone... Part I

Yesterday afternoon, my oldest son went to a birthday party in one of our neighbouring villages, beautiful Biddestone. Meanwhile, his younger brother and I took a stroll around this gorgeous little English gem... Aaah, this neighbour is easy to love!

I always feel a little uncomfortable taking photos of other people's houses, but I hope the owners don't mind my admiring their beautiful homes through my lens... Something tells me I am probably not the first one (nor the last) to go a little snap-crazy in this village either.

Wishing you a lovely day and thank you SO much for all of your kind, encouraging comments - I really, really appreciate every comment, every word.

Helena

Ps. If you feel these images are too large for your computer screen to comfortably fit them in, don't forget you can always zoom out a little (I find 83% is usually a good size).

Friday, 10 June 2011

In a recycling mood...

With a thousand new ideas in my head, but lacking the time to realize them, and with skies whose hobby seems to be to shower me with wet drops the second I set foot outside, like a young rascal with a water balloon just sooo tempting to throw at a passer-by... well, instead of potentially interesting new pictures, I think today's blog post will be some recycled images from May last year.

My beloved bluebells were in full bloom and I could not resist to set a little tea-for-two table in the garden...

I know ivy can be intrusive and even knock over walls with their growth power, but I can't help it, I just love their evergreen loveliness draping walls and tree trunks.

A special welcome to all of you new readers (and of course a warm hello to old readers too). In the past couple of days my blog visit counter has shown more than a staggering 1500 visits per day, and as this is a lot more than usual, despite my not having posted anything for over a week, I can't help but wonder if my blog has appeared somewhere that I am completely unaware of...(other than the normal blog rolls on other blogs, etc)? Either way, it is very flattering and welcome, WELCOME all of you!

Ps. I have now heard that some other bloggers have experienced a similar "rush" of visitors recently, so perhaps my flattering "popularity" is rather the result of a misbehaving counter..:-) Have you had a similar experience with the numbers?

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Helena

(As I did not yet have my small round garden table at the time of taking these photos, the "table" above was made with a round piece of MDF on top of a couple of wooden boxes. "Mosquito net" style curtains for a few pounds from IKEA act as table cloth - a cheap and easy way to add a romantic feel to a table decoration, and when outside, they flow beautifully in the wind.)

Well, then we find the slightly "overbearing" former TV-cabinet, now housing a sowing machine and all sorts of craft material. Next to it, one of my grand-parents' old chairs, recovered in a cushion cover from H&M, in front of which lean some of my wooden trays and bowls, awaiting their next "assignment"...

Click on the image to visit my Interior Styling & Photography website

Welcome to my blog, where I hope to share a few glimpses of interior and garden decorating ideas and of the life of a Swede in the UK. Unable and unwilling to stick to one style, my house hosts a mix of Swedish-Danish-French country style, with a hint of New England and a whiff of the Orient. I tend to surround myself with pale, calming colours, but sometimes also flirt with a more spicy palette. With inspiration from nature, recycled items and a dose of cheeky playfulness, I try to see beauty in the little things and items that may at first appear scruffy and 'past their best'. I hope you may find some inspiration here. Välkomna!

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are my own, so please ask if you would like to borrow them, and always state the source.

Some of my photos from the Swenglish Home featured in Franciska Munck Johansen's book...

Out now - Click on the image to see where it is sold

Some of my photos in Franciska Munck Johansen's Christmas book......

Out in November 2012

Our home featured in...

April issue 2012

Our home featured in German magazine Landhaus...

July/August issue 2012

Our home featured in...

Hungarian Interior Magazin Otthon, 2013/06

Some of my photos in ...

Norwegian magazine Vakre Hjem, March 2011

Some of my ideas and photos in...

Hungarian magazine A Mi Otthonunk, Dec 2011

Some of my photos, texts and ideas in...

Wiltshire Magazine April/May 2012

Some of my work published in...

Wedding Flowers Magazine July/August 2012

Some of my work published in...

Good Homes Magazine, February 2013

The Swenglish Home is a member of...

About me

I am a forty-something Swede and I live with my familyin an 18th-century cottage in a small hamlet outside Bath in the UK. I previously lived in an early Victorian house nearby, the interior of which is the one featured here during the first four years of the Swenglish Home blog (Feb 2010 - Feb 2014). When I am not busy picking flowers by the road side or plotting a new interior project, I work as a university lecturer and consultant in Intercultural Communication.

For my work as a Communication Consultant and University lecturer, see my website: